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Mini Poll If IT were a religion -and to some it may be - who are the high priests? In many organisations, it would be those who hold the key information, those who reserve the right to change the charts on the walls, or those who update the standards which all others must follow. Such beings go by various names, but these are less important than the information they maintain.

With this in mind, how important is it to keep such a clear view across IT as a whole? This is no idle question. We are in little doubt of the usefulness of understanding how the technical environment is structured, for example, or how tools and techniques are standardised. But we lack a clear idea of the relative importance of these different ‘big pictures’. Neither do we know precisely how well each view is being maintained across the different types of organisation.

So, without further ado, here’s a very short survey. We hope to get quite a lot out of this one, not least because it might help us better understand where efforts should best be placed. Do please fill it in, it shouldn’t take more than five minutes of your time and we’ll feed back the results sharpish.

READER POLL

1. How much emphasis is placed on dealing with the following in a structured and rigorous manner in your organization? (1=None, 5=Fanatical)

None
1

2

3

4

Fanatical
5

Maintaining overall knowledge of how the business works from a process perspective

Maintaining overall knowledge of the software and applications in use

Maintaining overall knowledge of how applications and business processes relate

Defining the tools, techniques and standards for building/integrating applications in general

Defining functional requirements for specific new or changing applications